Angola’s president mourned the death of former Namibian head of state Sam Nujoma and highlighted his contribution to building a strong nation and democracy.
In a message shared on his Facebook page, João Lourenço expressed his condolences to the Namibian people and emphasised that the first president of Namibia, who died on Saturday at the age of 95, used all his energies and experiences to build a “strong” and “democratic” nation, with solid foundations on the path to progress, prosperity and the well-being of the Namibian people.
He also praised his contribution to energising the Southern African Development Community (SADC) with initiatives that helped strengthen “its role as a catalyst for regional integration and development in the southern part of the continent”.
As leader of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), the liberation movement he co-founded in 1960, Sam Nujoma won Namibia’s independence in 1990 from South Africa, which had taken control of the territory from Germany after the First World War.
In 2021, he considered Germany’s offer to pay more than a billion euros in compensation for the massacre of tens of thousands of indigenous Hereros and Namas, considered the first genocide of the 20th century, to be insufficient.
“Namibia must return to the negotiating table with Germany,” he said, describing the proposal as “terribly insignificant”.
Born on 12 May 1929 into a farming family, Sam Nujoma was the eldest of ten children. He looked after cows and goats until, at 17, he left the remote northern village where he lived to move to the western harbour town of Walvis Bay.
He discovered discrimination against black people and soon became a trade unionist, attending evening classes where he met pro-independence activists.
He was forced into exile in 1960 in Botswana, Ghana, and the United States, so he had to leave behind his wife and four children.
At the head of Swapo, he launched the armed struggle in 1966. The war of independence cost more than 20,000 lives. When he became President, Sam Nujoma refused to set up a commission to examine the atrocities committed during the 23-year conflict between Swapo and the pro-South African death squads.
After retiring from political life, he returned to school and obtained a master’s degree in Geology, convinced that Namibia’s mountains contained untapped mineral wealth.
Lusa
